Distribution of foodgrains under TPDS 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population receiving highly subsidized foodgrains

New Delhi: February 3,2017

Targeted Public
Distribution System (TPDS) is operated under the joint responsibility of
the Central and the State/Union Territory (UT) Governments. Central
Government is responsible for procurement, allocation and transportation
of foodgrains upto the designated depots of the Food Corporation of
India. The operational responsibilities for allocation and distribution
of foodgrains within the States/UTs, identification of eligible
beneficiaries, issuance of ration cards to them and supervision over and
monitoring of functioning of Fair Price Shops (FPSs) rest with the
concerned State/UT Governments.

The National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) has been notified which
provides for all India coverage of upto 75% of the rural population and
up to 50% of the urban population of the country for receiving highly
subsidized foodgrains. Corresponding to above coverage, State/UT-wise
coverage for receiving highly subsidized foodgrains was determined by
the then Planning Commission. Total 81,34,91,135 number of beneficiaries
under NFSA/ Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) are to be
identified by respective State/UT Governments and State/UT-wise number
of beneficiaries are fixed.

TDPS (Control) Order, 2015 and PDS (Control) Order, 2001, stipulate that
State/UT Governments are required to review the lists of beneficiaries
every year for the purpose of deletion of ineligible families and
inclusion of eligible families. State/UT Governments have been requested
from time to time to carry out drives for reviewing the list of
beneficiaries under TPDS. The exercise of deletion of bogus/ineligible
cards and inclusion of eligible families is a continuous process and
State/UT Governments are to periodically carry out the same.

As per the information received from State/UT Governments, as a result
of the continuous exercise of reviewing the list of Ration Cards, a
total of 2.33 crores ration cards have been deleted during the period
2013 to 2016[upto 15-11-2016].

As and when complaints are received by the Government from individuals
and organizations as well as through press reports, these are referred
to the State/UT Governments for inquiry and appropriate action.

To prevent the violation of provisions of TPDS [Control] Order 2015 and
NFSA 2013, the Department of Food & Public Distribution is implementing
a Plan Scheme on ‘End-to-end Computerisation of TPDS Operations’ under
12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) on cost sharing basis with the States/UTs.
The Scheme comprises of activities namely, digitization of ration
cards/beneficiary and other databases, computerisation of supply-chain
management, setting up of transparency portals and grievance redressal
mechanisms and installation of ePoS devices at Fair Price Shops and
issuance of foodgrains through biometric authentication. Besides above,
all States/UTs have been also requested to seed the Aadhaar numbers in
Ration Card database. The scheme will enable removal of bogus/ineligible
ration cards and better targeting of food subsidy, facilitate
availability of foodgrains to intended beneficiaries at Fair Price Shops
(FPS), check leakages and diversions etc. As on date 24.01.2017, 100%
digitization of ration cards and 72.97% seeding of Aadhaar has been
achieved and 1.78 lakh ePOS are currently operating at Fair Price Shops.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Consumer
Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Shri C.R Chaudhary while replying
to a written in Rajya Sabha today

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